Don’t Sing No Blues For Me

First World Theatre Ensemble begins its two-year stint as the resident theater company at the Community Education Center in West Philly with its production of Don’t Sing No Blues for Me. Set during the late 1970s in a barbershop that serves as the unofficial community center in a small North Carolina town, the play concerns a young man named Choice. Choice is in town to attend the funeral of a mother he never knew and to search for a father he’s never met. One of the few companies in Philadelphia dedicated to exploring the African-American experience, the residency at CEC is a big opportunity for First World, which, like many small companies, has struggled at times to find affordable space to present its work. The first of the company’s four productions this season, Sing is helmed by gifted director Ozzie Jones, who captured a well-deserved Barrymore Award for his direction of Freedom Theatre’s long-running holiday musical Black Nativity. -J. Cooper Robb